Good afternoon, I am new to brewing beer and I conditioned a Gluten Free Cherry Buckwheat ale. I thought it was carbonated enough but now it seems that it has less carbonation than I thought. I primed it with cane sugar with the proper amount of sugar but I would like to take it out of the fridge and let it sit at room temp again for a while. Would this harm the beer or should I seek another route?
Check out the homebrew forum. How long has it been since you bottled? The best route for stuff like this is just to let it sit at room temp for another ~week until it carbonates up correctly.
I bottled it about 3 weeks ago and it has been in the fridge for about a week. Can it still carbonate once I bring it back to room temp?
yea, gasses release slower and lower temperatures and faster at higher temps. You can always let it warm up to around 50 degrees, and see what happens. Your other option is to brew it again, and add 1/2-1 oz more of priming sugar. http://www.800mainstreet.com/9/0009-006-henry.html
Probably. If you used the right amount of priming sugar and didn't brew anything too over the top or do anything oddly adverse to your yeast your bottles will carbonate. A general rule for bottle conditioning is ~3 weeks at room temp, but I have had batches that take longer or shorter.
Thank you, I appreciate the input. I have been making wine for about 6 years now and the brewing process for beer is a little different and I just want to make sure that the thoughts I have are what everyone else may have dealt with at one time or another.
Personally, I think the bigger issue is not Henry's Law, rather that the yeast quit producing CO2 when they stall at low temps (i.e. below ~55-60 F)
I conditioned in the bottle at room temp for two weeks. I have a cabinet that circulates air pretty well and it maintains about 70-72 degrees constant.
It's possible that 2 weeks was not long enough. Let the bottles come up to room temp, give them another week or two, and see.
bottling is by far the worst part (or only bad part?) of brewing. If you brew a couple batches and decide its something you're really into get kegging asap. It's the best money I ever spent. Junker fridge/freezer off craigslist, temp controller, a bit of tubing and some used soda kegs are all you need.
I have been thinking about kegging but I want to make sure this is something I am going to be doing for a while. It is a step that I may wait until my brother comes up in May. What do I need a temp controller for if the fridge already has one?
Agreed... Usually 1-2 weeks is plenty of time to carbonate, however I brewed a saison a few months ago and it didn't carb in 3 weeks. I thought I f'ed up the priming sugar so I put the beers aside and forgot about them. About a month later I tried to show a fellow BA what a flat, shitty beer is like and out of nowhere the cap popped when I opened it and it was perfectly carbonated and tasting great! Yeast are living organisms and just need time to do their thing sometimes. I would let your beer sit awhile longer and open 1 a week to see what happens...
